Jacques Dessange

Jacques Dessange

Hairdressing chain owner

Jacques Dessange, 89, is the founder of France’s largest hairdressing chain, Dessange, which now operates in more than 45 different countries. Dessange, who opened his first salon on the Champs-Elysées in 1954, rose to fame as the inventor of the “messy look” hairstyle. This unique look and his skills with a brush and scissors earned him clients from among France’s celebrity elite and saw him holiday with Brigitte Bardot and become the official hair stylist of the Cannes Film Festival. Dessange reemerged in public in 2011 when he released an online book claiming his son forced him out of the business after the father appointed the son as company president. Dessange wrote in the book that his son’s behavior had stolen “my honor, my name, my reason to live.”

File details

Listed as the “head of company in the field of hairstyle,” Dessange’s HSBC files connected him to a client account named “40779 JD” that listed 10 bank accounts which together held as much as $1.6 million in 2006/2007. The client account was open from 2003 to 2006. The files do not state the precise nature of Dessange’s role in the account.

Comment

A lawyer for Dessange told ICIJ reporting partner Le Monde, "Mr. Dessange regularized his situation with tax authorities two or three years ago. It cost him a lot."

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